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Jacob Trouba returns to Team USA for his second World Juniors appearance. (Photo courtesy of Jana Chytilova/HHOF-IIHF and the US NTDP)
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OHL’s Rangers, Michigan Daily settle over Trouba case

MiHockey Staff
Jacob Trouba talks to the media after being selected 9th overall in the 2012 NHL Draft. (Photos by Michael Caples/MiHockey)

By Matt Mackinder –

The Jacob Trouba war appears over.

For now, at least.

After the Michigan Daily reported earlier this summer that the Rochester native had been offered a large sum of money by the Ontario Hockey League’s Kitchener Rangers to forgo his commitment to the University of Michigan this fall, the Rangers took action and filed a hefty lawsuit against the Daily and writer Matt Slovin.

In the story, Slovin says an unnamed source tipped him off to the situation with Trouba, a solid defenseman who played the last two seasons for the U.S. National Team Development Program in Ann Arbor and was drafted 9th overall by Winnipeg in June’s NHL draft.

The Trouba family later released a statement denying the allegations and the Rangers demanded the Daily remove the controversial story from their website, a demand the Daily did not agree with.

Kitchener holds Trouba’s OHL rights, having selected him in the third round of the 2010 draft out of the Compuware organization.

Friday, Kitchener released a statement saying the organization has dropped the lawsuit.

 “The Michigan Daily has removed the article that caused the Kitchener Rangers to commence legal proceedings against the newspaper and the reporter, Matt Slovin.  As they have acceded to what was from the outset the Kitchener Rangers’ primary demand, we are discontinuing the legal proceedings as against the newspaper and Mr. Slovin.

The Kitchener Rangers remain gravely concerned about the ease with which a source hiding behind the cloak of anonymity was able to spread the false allegation that our organization offered Jacob Trouba financial compensation.

We are not discontinuing the action against the anonymous source. Although truth would be a complete defence to the libel action, we fully expect that the source will not have the courage to step forward, as there is not a shred of truth to the allegation, as the Ontario Hockey League investigation has now confirmed.

It is unfortunate that there are individuals so intent on harming our organization that they would fabricate and disseminate harmful lies. It is particularly unfortunate that they chose to implicate Jacob Trouba and his family, who should not have had to answer to the baseless allegation.”